A life of a 17 year old girl is always filled with high-school drama, mistakes and guilt. But surprisingly, the life of Sarah Jones was the definition of perfect. It was like something in a summer's day that would never fade away. And when she met...
In times when you know that life is not a bittersweet novel, the inevitable truth hits you like a truck. It's like being stuck in the whirlpool and whirling around it's center, not knowing what to do but simply wait for its severity to destroy you.
I kept my gaze at the closed door, not shifting it even when my French tutor was explaining an important topic. The reason for my eyes being so adamant about sticking to that spot is, Neil has not come yet. It's really odd because, he hardly misses any French classes.
The moment I entered the class and saw his empty seat, until now, I might have probably texted him 50 messages but he is on the path to become a hermit.
As soon as the French classes ended, I jumped out of my seat and made my out on the street to McDonald's where he was working.
He will have to face the dire consequences of his actions. I thought to myself.
He is the only person that I talk to in my classes and when he is absent, I basically become a loner, which I was today.
When I finally reached McDonalds', I barged my way inside to find where that dumbass is. I could not find him anywhere, so I asked one of the workers there and she said that he did not come there either. That's odd. Neil would never miss to work here. He had recently joined it. Something is wrong. I am not a prophet or a virtuoso who knows everything even the future, but when something goes wrong, I can feel it. It's a strong feeling that whirls inside me.
That strong feeling in my stomach made me feel nervous. I came outside in the open air and decided to go to his house to check on him. His house is a couple of blocks away from McDonalds' so it would give me enough time to think about various possibilities of his impromptu absence.
When I reached his house, my wild imaginations had taken the best of me. I knocked on the door because I had to stop the constant train of thoughts that invaded my mind.
A minute passed by and nobody opened the door. Why is nobody opening the door?
I knocked on the door once again. There was definitely something wrong.
Before I could pull out my phone from my jeans pocket to call Neil once more, the door to happiness opened. Except it was not held by little tiny elves, but it was opened by a teen blonde who had black heads on her nose which could be spotted from miles away.
"Hey, how can I help you?" Her voice was not like a normal teenager, it was more shrill and loud.
"Yeah, I am Sarah, a good friend of Neil. Is he home?"
"Did you not know?" She said with a look of utter confusion on her face.
"Did I not know what?" Now my nerves are firing up, this better be a joke.
"Neil was caught up in a horrific accident last night."
As soon as she spoke the words, it felt that my heart had been zapped with thousands of volt of electricity. This could not happen. This is all so sudden. Thousand thoughts had flooded my mind when I heard that Neil was caught up in an accident.
Why did no one inform me?
"Mr and Mrs. Singh rushed to the hospital the moment they received the call. They called me to take care of the house." She said clearly not noticing that how shocked I was with the piece of information that she just gave that I did not care about the tiny details she was telling me.
"What-what..........what actually happened? When? What was it?" I did not understand myself the questions that I had been hurling at her.
"See, I told you it happened last night. I don't know more details about it. I am sorry." She said shrugging her shoulders as if she did not give a damn about Neil. Who is she?
"He is in which hospital?"
"He is admitted in the Community Hospital."
Time was the luxury that I couldn't afford then, so I turned and made my way onto the streets without saying a thank you.
While I was walking on the street, the memory of how we met, how he was a good friend to me in times of problems filtered my mind and before I could control it, a single tiny tear rolled down my cheek. Neil is no more than a good friend, but he was the first male friend whom I have shared all my secrets with, apart from my three girlfriends. He never really judged for who I really was nor did he hesitate to correct me when I was wrong. And when he told me about his interests, I was happy for him but was saddened by the fact that such an open-minded and extrovert person would have to live in such a conservative home. When I said that I would always stick to his side when he would reveal the truth to his parents, I meant that. And to know that something like this, has happened to someone this close to me is just saddening.
As I continue walking I notice that, the single tear is now accompanied by many. Half way after walking, I realized that I was walking on the wrong path which would basically not lead me the community hospital. I step back and look around, I realize that I don't know this place at all. The path was completely isolated, there were no cars, a building was there which was apparently under construction and there was no sign of any living soul at all. I turn around and try to trace my way back, but as it turns out that I was so caught up in my emotions that I did not realize that at which point which turn did I take.
I could hear the sounds of men laughing somewhere nearby and I started feeling the knots tying up in my stomach. I pressurized my mind to go back and trace the way but my efforts went all in vain. I became nervous as I didn't know which way to go to, I started sweating and I looked here and there for a sign to help me remember my way.
Suddenly, I heard the engine of a bike being roared and the bike getting started. It was coming in my direction.
Oh God!!
I turned around and started running on a street which was uncouth to me. I started hyperventilating as I didn't know how good or bad these men will be.
I could hear the sound of the bike clearly as it was only a few metres away. I increased my pace and started running wherever my legs were taking me. But as the legs are part of human body and not part of machines, I could feel the bike getting close to where I was.
My legs were about to give out, my lungs were out of oxygen and I wasn't able to breathe. So I decided to stop running and be brave.
I could hear the screeching of the tires, as soon as I stopped running.
What the-
Whatever happens, I am gonna shout at the top of my voice. At least someone will hear me. These are the times when I wish I had a pepper spray, or some hammer but these are also the times which I don't encounter on a regular basis.
With mustering up lot of courage, I turn around to see the rider and prepare myself for a punch, or cloth covering my face, sprayed with chloroform or some physical attack, but what I see just makes my heart stop beating.
But not before saying thank you to my lucky stars a million times.
The ultimate saviour in the time of crisis or, one can say, who was riding the bike, was Jake.
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